LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: Still more to do in making 'Dream' a reality

In this Sept. 16, 1963 file photo, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gives a news conference in Birmingham, Ala., announcing he and other African-American leaders have called for federal Army occupation of Birmingham in the wake of the previous day's church bombing and shootings which left six black people dead. (AP Photo/File)

I wonder if Dr. King ever dreamed of the Internet. I wonder if he dreamed of a time when every person with a laptop was suddenly a member of the media, when our private-most thoughts are splashed across Facebook pages for all to see, and when we react to and publish information instantaneously.

I wonder how he would have used social media to push his agenda of change through nonviolence. How many followers do you think he would have on Twitter? How many likes would his Facebook page get? What would his Klout score be?

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I also wonder if he would be dismayed at the tone of so much of today's conversation.

Fifty years ago, King's words had a majesty as they lingered in the thick, humid August air in the nation's capital. With the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument as a background, King called on the nation to fulfill the true meaning of its creed.

To this day, a half-century later, I can't listen to that speech without the hair on the back of my neck tingling, without feeling the moistness well up in my eyes, and without wondering what we would lose in the months to come. In Dallas. And Memphis.

Today, on the day set aside to honor the birthday of the civil rights leader, I also wonder something else. I wonder how far we've really come.

On that same mall where King's words still resound, another man will hold forth today. Barack Obama will take the oath of office as president of the United States. For the second time. Four years ago, Obama made history when he was sworn in as the first African American to reside in the White House.

It is correctly pointed to as proof of how far we've come in the struggle for civil rights.

Unfortunately, much of what has happened in these last four years points to how much farther we still have to go.

Make no doubt, the attacks on Obama go much deeper than partisan politics. Even the most ardent political opposition to the president does not explain the attacks on his ancestry, the constant questions about his citizenship, the demands for his birth certificate.

Really, only one thing does. Dr. King saw it and spoke out about it. He dreamed of a world where it did not exist.

I would like to think Dr. King, in his most private moments, also dreamed of a nation where a black man could be elected president. And then likely recoil at some of the guttural reaction to the new commander in chief.

Whenever I speak in public, I inevitably tell people of the seminal events in my life that I believe helped form the person I am today and what I do for a living. I talk of the house I grew up in and my parents, my elementary school tutelage at the firm right hand of the good Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

And something else. I tell them -- proudly -- of my first two years of college, at Lincoln University. I often see the quizzical look on their faces. Yes, I tell them, some people may have found it odd that I would have attended one of the nation's oldest, most prestigious institutions of higher learning traditionally dedicated to the education of African-American youths.

They always ask me why that was so important. I usually tell them to look around the room and tell me what they see. Most of the time they don't understand. So I help them out.

"You see what I saw most every day in Oxford, Pa. I saw a lot of faces that looked just like mine. I was almost always in the majority. Then I walked into a classroom at Lincoln University and realized mine was the only face that looked like mine."

At that moment, I never wanted more for King's oratory to ring true, to be judged on the content of my character, not the color of my skin.

I treasure those two years at Lincoln University. I highly recommend the experience. It was eye-opening. It taught me a lot about treating people the way I would like to be treated.

Fifty years later, I spend a lot of time every day fending off anonymous comments on our website that are dripping with racial invective.

I think of Dr. King, and how he would confront such evil.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."